Here is What Digital Transformation Means to These Industries

As the business ecosystem advances, organizations across the world are seeking ways to keep up with the pace of change. Today, many are trying to make the most of digital technologies to enhance business process efficiency and achieve a competitive advantage in the market.

Although the transformation is picking up steam across every sector, here’s what digital transformation means to these four industries:

Manufacturing

In the manufacturing sector, getting insight into supply chain and manufacturing lifecycles has become critical to efficiently manage production complexities. Digital transformation in manufacturing has a lot to do with embracing technologies that ensure round-the-clock availability while ensuring the safety of workers.
To enable digital transformation in the manufacturing sector, companies can

• Leverage modern technological innovations across IoT, AR, and AI to enable real-time manufacturing operations monitoring across field sales, procurement, and logistics. Construction major L&T, for instance, is focusing on implementing new-age technologies to make operations across construction sites, quality management, and people management more smart and efficient.
• Embrace advancements in big data analytics and machine learning to glean insight from data and make intelligent, evidence-based decisions across demand forecasting, inventory management, equipment health monitoring, worker safety, and more. Tata Steel, for instance, uses advanced analytics to make better real-time, data-driven decisions and improve the efficiency of plant operations.
• Automate processes, workflows, and information management systems to simplify complex and redundant activities and drive innovation and creativity for better throughput. Global car major Toyota has been automating processes since the very beginning to streamline production, increase efficiency, and reduce waste.

Healthcare

As the digitization of industries happens at an accelerated pace, the healthcare industry is looking to invest in modern technologies to enhance the patient experience, optimize operations, and bring down overall cost and risk of healthcare. Using technologies such as AI, robotics, IoT, 3D printing, and big data analysis, healthcare companies are all set to boost operational efficiency while ensuring compliance and quality of care.

To kickstart the digital transformation journey in the healthcare sector, companies can

• Use IoT technology to integrate data from myriad hospital systems into a single repository and accelerate diagnosis and treatment schedules. Apollo, for instance, leverages AI and smart technology to connect diagnostic and other healthcare equipment and enable operational and clinical teams to make better decisions.
• Leap into the world of telehealth to provide healthcare services to patients – irrespective of where they are located – and manage their health remotely. Teladoc Health, for instance, employs a virtual care center that allows doctors to interact with patients remotely, understand their symptoms, provide prescription while enabling them to self-manage their health.
• Leverage advancements in machine learning and AI to sift through patients’ medical history and undermine the chances of illness, the effect of medicines, and the susceptibility to allergies. Ochsner Health System, for instance, is all set to launch a program that analyzes patients’ medical history and identifies high-risk patients so diseases can be detected early or even prevented.

Energy

Digital transformation in the energy sector opens up a world of opportunities for companies looking to optimize energy production and reduce wastage. As competition intensifies and as market forces evolve, embracing modern technological innovations such as IoT, data science, renewable energy software, and cloud computing is the only way to effectively manage energy generation and consumption.

To drive digital transformation in the energy sector, companies can

• Invest in Digital Twin technology to monitor key performance indicators, receive alerts in the event of issues, and take the necessary course of action for remediation. GE, for instance, has more than a million digital twins deployed, keeping tabs on more than 70% of the jet engines currently being utilized throughout the world.
• Embrace the world of cloud and AI to optimize power generation, benchmark asset performance, and boost plant yield. American Oil and Gas company Exxon Mobil makes use of analytics to analyze drilling data, optimize well performance, and get an end-to-end view of operations.
• Use IoT sensor technology to remotely assess the efficiency of distributed energy assets and make changes to optimize energy production. Indian energy company Suzlon leverages IoT and analytics to get real-time insight into field conditions, improve energy yield of turbines, and enable better scheduling and forecasting.

Finance

As the financial sector becomes a battleground for established veterans and new-age startups, companies are looking to embrace advance technologies such as cloud, AI, and data analytics to survive and thrive. Deutsche Bank, for instance, is all set to cut staff by 18,000 to reduce costs and spend €13bn on technology by 2022 to digitize and optimize underlying infrastructure.

To drive digital transformation in the financial sector, companies can

• Automate manual, error-prone administrative tasks using RPA and improve the quality and efficiency of service provided to customers. SBI uses automation to overcome challenges associated with the time-consuming, complex, error-prone traditional onboarding process.
• Explore the world of blockchain to build trust between different intermediaries, drive greater transparency in transactions, and eliminate the challenges that centralized control brings. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), for instance, has successfully completed a proof-of-concept test for blockchain-powered trade finance. The platform is built to enable customers to securely and quickly update purchase orders, invoices, and logistics information.
• Embrace cloud to end data storage problems and enable better accessibility to and scalability of data across the global enterprise. ICICI bank, for example, uses cloud technology to enhance internal operations and deliver a streamlined digital banking experience to customers.